Reviewing Adelaide

FRINGE VISUAL ART – 1:1 – FELTspace – 2K

In 1:1, artist Sara Morawetz brings to life the essay “On the Impossibility of Drawing a Map of the Empire on a Scale of 1 to 1” by Umberto Eco. The gallery space is minimalist, with a giant, crumpled fabric map in the centre, and a screen at the front of the room. In a looping video, the narrator outlines the conditions on which a 1:1 scale map can exist, as the artist attempts to recreate the narrator’s conditions. The piece is interesting, but is not entirely legible to the everyday viewer. The exhibit did not seem to have much depth for those who haven’t read the essay by Eco, making this piece niche and fairly inaccessible.